Mysteries surround N Korea blast

[dArKeR]

STRANGE DAYS INDEED: Some outsiders have started to wonder why such a disproportionate number of the injured were children - and where exactly Kim Jong-il is

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , TOKYO
Friday, Apr 30, 2004,Page 6

To hear North Korea's state media tell it, in the midst of an inferno of exploding rail cars and dying children, several heroic women made the ultimate sacrifice, running into blazing buildings in frantic attempts to save treasured portraits of Kim Jong-il and his late father, Kim Il-sung.

"Many people of the county evacuated portraits before searching after their family members or saving their household goods," the Korean Central News Agency wrote approvingly from Ryongchon, the railroad town where a huge explosion killed at least 161 people and wounded 1,300 last week.

"They were buried under the collapsing building to die a heroic death as they were trying to come out with portraits of President Kim Il-sung and leader Kim Jong-il," it said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/04/30/2003138599

I wonder?

[MrSlayer]

1. Well, wouldn't you save your portrait of Bush first?

I know if there's a fire in my house, the first thing I'm going for is the Bush picture. Fuck the kids, the wife, the cats, the rabbit, the fish, the money...How insane must it be to live there completely brainwashed?

[fujiyama]

10. I really hate to say this

but that is definetely one fucked up country, if people were sacrificing their lives for portraits of their "dear leader".

Then again this could be state propaganda.

[tkmorris]

12. "Then again this could be state propaganda"

Ummm, do ya think?

[jobycom]

2. Yes, I believe it WAS me who asked where Kim was hours after

the explosion, with a hint that something was being hidden.

[Must_B_Free]

3. me too

Remember I said they wouldn't tell us if they had gotten him.

[jobycom]

4. I believe I do remember something to that effect, yes.

:-)

[daleo]

5. Not saying it was one, but it seems like a nice description of a mini-nuke

"Another nagging question: what caused the blast? Without citing a source or witness, KCNA, the North Korean news agency, said the "explosion was caused by the contact of electric lines during the shunt of wagons loaded with nitric ammonium fertilizer and tank wagons." This explosion, KCNA said, was "equivalent to the blast of about 100 bombs each weighing one tonne.""

i.e. about .1 kilotons

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Ok who has the means and the motive?

CIA? MI6, the Chinese service, and my two favorite suspects, the Japanese and S. Koreans. If hte explosion was large enough, any evidence of who did it would be literally burned and blown away. Oh I forgot the Russians.

By the way, pay attention to the May Day parade... this is when we will know if uncle Kim bought the farm... it woudl make negotiations and deescalation oh so much easier.

[countmyvote4real]

7. What would Karen Hughes do in that situation?

Hmmm

false relics vs. her cause?
her cause vs. her payback from the cause?
her payback from the cause vs. royalties from another book?
royalties from another book vs. martyrdom?

I'm guessing the only question in her mind is, "Why do these goals have to be mutually exclusive?"

I'd like her and her stud to drop dead, but that's just my own
truth vs. their fiction reality.

It's not going to happen.

But man, she would blow up real good.

On edit: This is not a threat. It's only a dream that a wish your heaart makes.

[Merlin]

8. Didn't buy it from the beginning. It was a perfectly executed plot.

When you study the satellite photos of Ryongchon, you can see a huge fuel tower just west--within yards--of the two sets of tracks that come close together as they approach the station. It was clear Kimi boy's train had to pass through that station. The fuel towers would have made an ideal location for a remotely activated bomb, and added to the blast effect by fueling a huge follow-on conflagration.

Which would have given Mr. Kim the kind of appropriate sendoff he so richly deserved in departing this mortal coil to be with his father. Too bad so many regular human beings had to suffer, too.

[Muddleoftheroad]

11. Perfectly executed?

It missed him by NINE hours.

[tkmorris]

13. Did it?

I'm not too big on unfounded conspiracy theories but the fact is that we know jack-all about what happened that day.

I remember when it went down, after the initial reports there was a whole lot of nothing. North Korea even shut down the PHONES to keep information from spreading. So tell me, how do we know that Fearless Leader was nine hours away already? Don't even mention North Korean train schedules, they make Dean Koontz novels look like non-fiction.

The fact is, the events of that day are pretty "muddled". Sorry, I just HAD to do that :)

[Merlin]

15. If he were alive and well, he'd have appeared in public by now.

One of the first thing he'd want to do would be to reassure his adoring, worshipping public.

I haven't read of him doing so yet.

[Rex]

9. And yet we attacked Iraq.

Can't mess with N.K. because they actually hold a threat to 2nd ID.

[Pert_UK]

14. Some further info + explanation....

I can't remember where I heard or read this, but be assured that I only consult worthy news sources!

I heard that Kim Jong-il's train was indeed scheduled to be going through the town at the time of the explosion. His movements are kept secret, and are often changed at the last minute to avoid any assassination attempts. However, apparently hundreds of children and many soldiers had been instructed to line the route of the railway line at the time of the explosion. The theory is that a show of public loyalty and love had been arranged, although nobody involved had been told specifically that the President was coming through town. In actual fact, his train went through hours earlier after a last-minute change of plan, but the waving, adoring crowds still turned up at the appointed time.

The crowd copped the brunt of the explosion, while the President was already miles away....but it does make a deliberate explosion seem more likely.

As regards the stories of people running into burning buildings to rescue portraits of their leader, I suggest that the North Korean press needs to wake up and smell what it's shovelling.

Utter, offensive crap.

[chenGOD]

16. It's most likely true.

During the Asian Games here last year, some of the Morth Korean cheerleaders stopped a bus they were on when they saw a banner of Kim Jong Il being battered by the rains and winds. They took it down and folded it with loving reverence.

The reason for the kids is cause of the time of day it took place, (aprroximately 2 in the afternoon) when all the elementary school kids got out of school.

As far as the offensive crap goes, it's no worse than the stuff I see coming out of Fox or World of The News.